ECE 110/120 Honors Lab Section : Autonomous Car Carrier

Statement of Purpose

Many college students are carrying too many things around with them. The team’s solution to this problem is to create an autonomous car that follows a student and can carry a small bit of their load. The goal of this project is to free up students’ hands by providing them with a mindless solution that follows them wherever they go. This car will use a variety of cameras and sensors to follow people and avoid obstacles while carrying an object that fits within a 1’ x 1’ x 1’ space. Also, if time permits and there are enough resources, a moving plate will be added. It will keep the objects in the carrying container from sliding by using a gyroscope to counteract the movements of the vehicle.

Background Research

There are many vehicles that can carry packages and things from Point A to Point B. An example of this is the fleet of box-like vehicles that Starship designed. They can carry groceries and food from dorm to dorm. While these vehicles can carry books and other things, they cannot follow a person to their class. If a student needs to carry their books or lab materials with them, it may be challenging with all of the other things they have to carry. A vehicle that can carry these things and follow them while avoiding obstacles would provide the student with a helping hand. There are other projects in the past that other ECE students have completed. They are autonomous cars that follow something or go from point A to point B, so it is a pretty common project with a lot of prior examples and information that will help in the build process. 

Based on prior projects, omni wheels connected to DC gearbox motors (hooked up to a motor controller) can allow the vehicle to have a full 360° range of motion. It will also be simpler to turn left and right because of the structure of the omni wheels and make sure that the contents in the basket don’t slip or spill. To make sure the vehicle follows one specific person, computer vision and machine learning will be used with cameras and infrared sensors. Data needs to be collected to train the computer to recognize certain objects to follow like people or shoes and certain objects to avoid like rocks and roots.

Block Diagram / Flow Chart

System Overview

The Raspberry Pi is the central hub of the car, taking in the video and visuals from the Night Vision Camera Module and controlling the motors based off the sensors. The battery provides power to the Raspberry Pi and the Motor Controller, and it will be rechargeable to allow the vehicle to follow the target. The camera detects obstacles as well as the position of the target, and the Raspberry Pi uses the data from the camera to chart a path to keep following the target and avoid the obstacles. The Raspberry Pi then controls the motors based of the charted path by using the DRV883 Motor Controller to steer the Mecanum wheels. Below is a diagram showing how everything will be built.

*Note: The diagram is only a demo, it is not drawn to scale. The Mecanum wheels will be placed below the chassis. There will also be a removable cargo bay above this layer to carry cargos.

Parts

(1.) Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+

(2.) Mecanum Wheels

(4.) DC gearbox Motors

(5.) L298N Motor controller

(6.) Night Vision Camera Module

(7.) Battery Packs

(8.) Chassis (Self made with wood, cardboard, or Acrylic board)

Needed to purchase:

Possible Challenges

One of the many problems we could encounter is maneuvering through obstacles. There are various types of obstacles like rocks, roots, and people that could obstruct the path of the vehicle. Finding a way to maneuver through all of these different obstacles will be difficult. Another problem that could arise would be if the vehicle starts following the wrong person. Making sure that the vehicle follows the correct person is the most important feature of the product. Finding a way to ensure that the vehicle follows the correct person will take some research, troubleshooting, and testing, which lead to some problems that will need to be solved. Additionally, another problem will be making sure that the books and other things inside the container don’t spill and tip over. Learning to use a gyroscope correctly and using physics to make auto-tilting technology functional will require a lot of time debugging any miscalculations the team might make.

References

[1]"Starship", Starship.xyz, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://www.starship.xyz/. [Accessed: 20- Sep- 2021]

[2]S. Monk, "Computer vision with the Raspberry Pi", O’Reilly Media, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://www.oreilly.com/content/raspberry-pi-cookbook-computer-vision/. [Accessed: 20- Sep- 2021]

[3]"How to Control Servo Motors with a Raspberry Pi", Maker.IO, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://www.digikey.com/en/maker/blogs/2021/how-to-control-servo-motors-with-a-raspberry-pi. [Accessed: 20- Sep- 2021]

[4]"Servomotor - Wikipedia", En.wikipedia.org, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Servomotor. [Accessed: 20- Sep- 2021]

[5]"Omni wheel - Wikipedia", En.wikipedia.org, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omni_wheel. [Accessed: 20- Sep- 2021]

[6]Youtube.com, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bganVdLg5Q. [Accessed: 20- Sep- 2021]

[7]"powering pi and dc motor from same batteries - Raspberry Pi Forums", Raspberrypi.org, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=101720. [Accessed: 20- Sep- 2021]